1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to Push-to-Talk (PTT) communication and in particular to a method, a system, and a device that enables seamless reconnection and configuration of dropped PTT calls.
2. Description of the Related Art
Push-to-Talk calls have become an acceptable method of communication between an originating user terminal and one or more end user terminals or user equipment (UE). With the wide acceptance of cellular communication and the proliferation of cellular UEs, PTT over cellular (PoC) has also become a popular method of communication amongst users having cellular-based UEs, such as mobile phones. These cellular-based UEs, also referred to as PoC terminals, run a PoC client that enables all of the functionality available with a legacy PTT device. For simplicity, the following description shall be made with specific reference to PoC, however, the described features and limitations are also applicable to PTT.
During a PoC call, the PoC client may provide the user(s) with the option of selecting whether to conduct the call using a half-duplex mode or a full-duplex mode. With a half-duplex mode, only one participant can speak at a time by depressing the talk button on that participant's user's terminal, and all sound originating at the other participant's end of the call is blocked while the first participant has the talk button depressed. With a full duplex mode, however, both participants are able to speak simultaneously and each participant can hear the other participant's speech as well as any surrounding background noise at the other participant's location. Some conventional PoC calls default to a half-duplex mode, and the participants must manually select the options to change the call to a full-duplex mode configuration.